


Something Impossible

by deborah_judge



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Happy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-29
Updated: 2011-06-29
Packaged: 2017-10-20 20:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/216687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deborah_judge/pseuds/deborah_judge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She asked for something impossible and now they're alive.  Set during season 1, written in 2005.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Impossible

He's sitting with her for a moment, after his father's speech is over. "So say we all" is still ringing in his brain, and it's good to be proud of his father for once, but it's even better to sit here, on Colonial One, relaxing before the next disaster. Her eyes are soft and patient as she watches him, and her hand is on the armrest that separates their seats. He wants to brush the edge of his hand against her arm, but he can't, not yet. And there's a question he needs to ask, something he still needs to understand.

"When the Cylon ships came," Lee says, "for the first time. We were unarmed, and my father had told us to go." Had ordered, to be precise, in the most bullshit-authoritative military way. "What made you decide to continue the rescue? How could you guess that I would be able to save you?"

The first order she ever gave was one that should have killed them both. She doesn't tense, though, so she must know he's not challenging her.

"I didn't," she says, plainly. "But would it have been worth it, to survive? Then, I mean," she adds quickly.

Yes, he wants to say, because he doesn't want to consent to her death. But it isn't true, not completely, because when she gave the order he followed it, and she had not sounded like a woman who was willing to die.

"Why did you follow my order?" she asks, because it's the inevitable next question. "Your father would have taken you back. You could have saved yourself, at least. Why did you think that you could miraculously save us all?"

'Because you asked me to,' Lee almost says, but it's too much to say and it's not time for that yet. 'Because I needed to' is the other possible answer, but that's not right either, because the universe doesn't give you things just because you need them.

Like two years, one month and three days ago, when Lee had slammed Zak into the wall of the locker room at their base, screaming his head off, yelling at Zak to get the frak out of the fleet before their godsdamned asshole of a father ruined them both. Zak had laughed in his face, then punched him for insulting their father.

A month later, when the news came that Zak had gone missing, Lee had hauled out all twelve of his statues from the box under his bed, begging each and every one of the Lords of Kobol to bring Zak home safe and alive. Of course, gods never listen to that kind of prayer. But then, what use are they?

Two years later the world ended, and with Zak gone Lee still couldn't bring himself to care if he - or his father - lived or died. Until he met Laura Roslin, watched her swear to uphold democracy and preserve the colonies as if they still mattered, saw her urgent determination to save what was left from the wreckage of humanity. And then his father gave his arrogant order, and Lee knew that he would be damned, really damned, sent to the dark place and left to rot there, if he didn't do anything and everything to keep him from taking her down.

So Lee found a way. And when he awoke after the explosion, Laura Roslin was there, close, and her breath was hope and heat on his face. She had asked him to do something crazy, and he had done it for her. Her eyes were wet, and she was alive, and smiling.

"Sometimes," Lee says, "there's something that you know is impossible, that you know can't possibly happen. It doesn't make sense, and it's wrong to even try. But even though it's impossible..." Lee hesitates, because this is where it all stops making sense, but it's the only answer he has. "I can't let it not happen. It can't not happen. That's even more impossible."

Even though Lee thinks she understands he hasn't explained it well at all. But that doesn't matter, because her hand is finally inching towards his and her eyes are like fire. He knows what she's going to ask. It's something he wants to give, and it's not too much to ask, because it's not more than everything. And is it wrong to be this happy, now that the world has ended?

"Something impossible," Laura says. Her hand is faintly trembling. Lee wants to touch her back and feel the tremor move down her body. But it isn't time for that yet, although it will be soon. "Captain Apollo," Laura says. "I know exactly what you mean."


End file.
